Either Parrikar will be back as CM or rule Goa from Delhi: Shah

The Bharatiya Janata Party has suddenly started a buzz on getting defence minister Manohar Parrikar back as the Goa chief minister.

After union minister Nitin Gadkari hinting at it, BJP national president Amit Shah told a public rally in Vasco that the party would take a decision on whether to send Parrikar back to rule Goa.

Parrikar, who took over as the chief minister of Goa in March 2012 after sweeping Assembly election, resigned in November 2014 to take over as India’s defence minister.

Though it was announced that his successor Laxmikant Parsekar would be the face of this election, the BJP changed its plan.

For all practical purposes, today Parrikar is the face of Goa election.

Union minister Gadkari, who is also the party’s Goa in-charge of election, had hinted few days ago that either the BJP legislators would elect a new leader or get the leader from the centre.

When asked in this regard, Parrikar refused to comment, stating that the decision would be taken by the newly elected party legislators.

And Amit Shah today ended the speculation by stating that Parrikar could come back as the Goa CM.

“Modi-ji wants him in Delhi, but Goans also want him in Goa. We will decide after election whether to send him back. If not, Parrikar will rule Goa from Delhi, be assured”, he told the rally in Vasco.

It appears that the BJP has come to the conclusion that party prospects of winning with majority cannot brighten unless Parrikar is projected as the CM-candidate once again, though he is not contesting.

Highly placed sources told goanews.com that the party is not at all happy with the performance of Laxmikant Parsekar, especially due to some decisions he took that hampered the party’s ‘clean’ image.

Perhaps this is the reason, Gadkari hinted at getting a central leader as the Goa CM while Parsekar was sitting next to him at the press conference.

After taking hard decisions like rejecting speaker Anant Shet and minister Ramesh Tawadkar as the candidates, the party appears to have also decided not to give another chance to Parsekar.

Though there was an election committee sitting round-the-clock to choose the candidates, party cadres revealed that it was Parrikar who was taking a final decision.

The decision of giving party tickets to Congress MLAs Mauvin Godinho and Pandurang Madkaikar, whom Parrikar had called the most corrupt, is enough indication that the party is desperate to win.

Winnability has thus been made a prime factor by the BJP while allotting tickets, which is a Congress tradition otherwise.

While replacing Shet and Tawadkar, the BJP also gave ticket to another Congressman Pravin Zantye, Shet’s rival in Mayem.

In addition, Parrikar also succeeded in pursuing Shet not to revolt and contest as an independent, though his efforts in case of Tawadkar did not materialise.

It is in this background the party has now indirectly and even directly started suggesting to the Goan electorate that Parrikar would come back as the Goa CM.

Volunteers/Workers has the say in the AAP but in Congress and BJP they even cannot sit next to their Leaders. AAP is the party of Volunteers/Workers and Congress and BJP is the party of Leaders.

Jack De Goan
, Goa | 26 th January 2017 20:39 IST

Election Commission of India should make Arvind Kejriwal, THE ELECTION AUTHORITY’S AMBASSADOR TO FIGHT CORRUPTION. I am 100% sure; bribery in election will stop within 2 years and there will be no money involved in all the coming elections but development will be involved.

Jack De Goan
, Goa | 23 rd January 2017 22:48 IST

This is the time to wait n watch . What is there in the hearts of goenkars. This is the time to calculate previous term. Measure to present term n then to decide exactly what we need in forthcoming term. When voter calculate all this Past/Present/Future. Voter will going to get his correct answer and voter will be doing right thing and every thing will smooth n fine. As the almighty has planned betterment of the state and INDIA too.